Cotton partners launch drive to bring textile/garment investment to West, Central Africa

The PPC is a multistakeholder partnership, co-convened by the WTO and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), that brings together international organizations, financial institutions and private-sector partners, including International Trade Centre (ITC), the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) and Afreximbank. Its purpose is to support the C-4+ countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Côte d'Ivoire) in mobilizing the investment needed to move up the cotton-textile-garment value chain.

The event, "From Lint to Label", co-organized by the WTO and UNIDO, brought together C-4+ Ambassadors, including the C-4+ Coordinator, H.E. Mr Angelo Dan, Ambassador of Benin; WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala;  UNIDO Deputy Director-General Fatou Haidara; Ms Olubunmi Obasanjo-Williams, Senior Specialist at Afreximbank; Mr Abdouramane Diallo, Senior Manager at the ITFC; and Ms Aissatou Diallo, Executive Director of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF).  

"The problem is not only a shortage of capital. It is that capital and investible projects are not finding each other," said DG Okonjo-Iweala.

A baseline assessment in the C-4+ conducted by UNIDO and ITC identified potential investment commitments of US$ 12 billion over ten years, including US$ 5 billion from the private sector. These are expected to generate about 500,000 direct jobs for women and youth and a further 1.5 million indirect jobs. Technical workshops organized by the PPC Secretariat have already developed more than ten bankable projects, and financial partners have committed to financing them.

The Director-General also welcomed the EIF as the newest member of the PPC, saying its experience in helping least developed countries turn trade priorities into projects brings the programme development function "to full strength".

The drive aims to present the region's potential to investors who can turn it into factories and jobs. It positions the five C-4+ countries as a single value chain, with coastal countries offering ports, industrial platforms, and land, and landlocked countries anchoring the chain with certified cotton. Investors will have a single-entry point, the Africa Textile Invest platform, launched in March 2026 at the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference. In the coming months, UNIDO will prepare country investor presentations, take the offer to countries where textile investors are most active, such as China and Türkiye, and bring those investors to meet project promoters in the region.

Partners already working as one

ITFC, Afreximbank, the EIF and UNIDO have pooled their contributions to fund the drive, and all investor contacts will feed one shared pipeline.

"The PPC is not only a platform for dialogue," said UNIDO's DDG Haidara. "It is a platform for partnership-building, investment mobilization and concrete action."

ITFC cited an investor in Istanbul or Guangzhou, looking at West Africa for the first time, asking where to build, who to deal with, who will finance it, and whether the partners will really work together. By the time that investor first travels to the region, ITFC said, the partnership will already have addressed those questions.

Afreximbank highlighted the role of its Project Preparation Facility. "Before investment, the facility supports the technical and advisory work that makes a project viable," Ms Obasanjo-Williams said. "By working early with UNIDO and project sponsors, we shape industrial plans to meet lenders' requirements."

The EIF is already pursuing an investment-focused approach through its Phase Three Country Programme Documents, which seek to translate country-owned priorities into viable projects capable of attracting investment and delivering tangible results."

C-4+ at the centre

Speakers stressed that the initiative belongs to the C-4+.

"Today, we launch an investment promotion campaign," said Ambassador Dan, speaking on behalf of the group. "Tomorrow, we want to celebrate the factories built, the jobs created, the value-added exports achieved and the millions of lives transformed."

The Director-General urged partners to align with the five countries' priorities and called on financial institutions to crowd in private capital: "The pipeline is real, the partnership is in place, and the C-4+ are ready."

The goal is to see the first spinning mills and garment factories open in the C-4+ region as a result of the drive, and to demonstrate a model that can be applied to other value chains and regions - with one value chain, one entry point and one group of partners working together.

DG Okonjo-Iweala closed with a reference to the cotton farmer at harvest. "The pivot to partnerships will be measured by whether she can see the difference: a mill nearer her fields, a factory that employs her children, and a label that says the value stayed at home."